Where have all the flowers gone...

16 December 2002 — 7:20pm

Where have all the flowers gone?

by Harry Heidelberg

I've spent most of the past week in Berlin where the city is experiencing one of its most bitter winters in memory. The sun has been shining but with daytime maximums of minus ten it has been hard to get too excited about going out. In the background on CNN there were debates about war with Iraq and announcements from President Bush about vaccinating around ten million Americans to prepare for a smallpox bio terror attack. A pretty average week as far as 2002 goes.

Meanwhile, no one likes Schroeder anymore and the economy has gone to hell in a hand basket. And it's Christmas time......ein bier bitte! I want a Berliner curry Bratwurst! Anything to escape reality. Give me comfort in the form of beer and sausages!

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I went to a party last week at the famous, or perhaps infamous Studio Babelsberg. This one facility itself seems to tell so much about the history of Berlin (and the world really) in the last century or so. It is in the former East Germany and is actually closer to Potsdam than Berlin.

The lessons of Babelsberg are many. The studio was massive in the 1920s and 1930s and rivalled the best of Hollywood. Marlene Dietrich started her career there with the incomparable Blue Angel. The early days at Babelsberg were special and beautiful. Then it became ugly. Hitler saw the power of modern media and with Goebels, Babelsberg became the main centre of Nazi propaganda. As civil society and the rule of law were rolled back, Babselsberg was transformed into something quite evil.

Later it became a propaganda setting for East Germany. More lies were propagated. So many lies for so many years. It's now owned by Vivendi Universal, a true symbol of globalisation. From a place of art to the horror of fascism, to the crushing nature of East German communism to today's global capitalism, Babelsberg has seen it all.

Wandering the streets of this history laden complex, I couldn't help but think of Marlene Deitrich. It was minus twelve degrees in the early hours of the morning and in looking at the ice, traces of snow and thick frost in the gardens, the thought occurred to me that there wouldn't be flowers for months. So incredibly bitter this winter.

I once saw Marlene Dietrich sing the Pete Seger anti-war song "Where Have all the Flowers Gone". She was old but somehow her defiance was stronger than ever. It was most beautiful when translated into German. She was prepared to say no to the Third Reich. The world around her was changing bit by bit and then later at a faster pace. She could see it was wrong.

In another era the composer of this song, Pete Seger, was hauled before Senator Joseph McCarthy's infamous committee for being unAmerican. Like Dietrich, he could also see his country changing bit by bit.

Where have all the flowers gone in 2002? I don't see many. It can be depressing but we need to look for flowers and we need to hold onto the ones we still have left.

We are now certainly in an era that has some similarities to the Cold War. There seem to be no easy solutions and the threat seems to have no end. We'd be wrong to ignore the threats but how much of what it means to be us are we prepared to risk? How much is necessary?

I'm going to quote something back to you Margo. You said:

"The essence of our way of life is the rule of law - that the certainty of abuse of State power against the innocent, proved over and over again by history, is addressed by insisting that we are ruled by laws, not men. The judiciary - independent of government and owing its duties to the law and the citizen, not government - are the bulwark of the rule of law. The right to legal representation when detained by police or other instruments of state power is essential to our freedom."

Patriots should indeed gain some comfort from those words. I'm scared though that a seemingly clear statement of who we are could be interpreted as controversial in the new environment. I can almost imagine people attacking you for quoting words which are part of our unwritten creed. We may not have these things written in one place but they are the things that make us who we are. We need to remember in Australia where we started and what was thought of authority in 1788. We need to remember what authority did to the Aborigines. We need to remember refugees and all the other people who came to Australia to escape authority. We are right to be sceptical of authority. This is core for us and we know where we have authority. Don't mess with us, the Aussie people. We are ALL refugees from authority in one form or another.

Authority has shown us that it deserves constant questioning and the very essence of that defines us.

I'm not fool enough to say we don't face a real threat. We must face this threat while remaining true to ourselves. Who are we as a people and what do we really represent? I sure hope it is the things you mention above. Those things are fundamental to who we are. We must have due process. We must have separation of powers. We have to find ways to defend ourselves but if we start undermining our foundations, we could be transformed into a very different society relatively quickly. Sometimes we Australians can take our good fortune for granted. History proves unexpected transformations are commonplace. Sometimes you only realise in retrospect how easily you have given up cherished rights.

We don't have much time left. It's super urgent. We need to be very clear about this. Let's look line by line at every law. More than that, let's look carefully at every word in every line. It is a time for level headed people to take a hard look at what is needed. We ARE a society of laws. That's words on paper so let's be serious. Cut the crap. The laws are made by the people we elect and they are accountable to us on a regular basis. I am really starting to become alarmed that I feel the need to remind myself of an implicit foundation of our society.

Are we really prepared to mess with the foundations? I sure hope not. Unless you want to unwind the best parts of our entire history as a country.

Some compromises are needed. We have to be smart though. We can compromise around the edges but we can't compromise at the core. We can never do that. Compromise the core and you have a meltdown and lose everything. Then it becomes quite hard to come back.

It's a bit by bit thing. Like "Where have all the Flowers Gone". Long time passing.

This article was first published in 'Where have all the flowers gone...' (webdiaryDec16).